Vision Unseen
by Frellnik
Summary: The crew of Moya are dragged into the rescue of a very special Nebari girl... My second ever fic attempt. Please R&R (unfinished)
1. Bound

She awoke in a chair, dizzy, the world spinning around her. She tried to open her eyes, but when she did so, pain blossomed in her head, a bright light coming from... somewhere, forcing them closed again. She tried to raise her arms to her temples, to try to rid herself of this fuzz that seemed to have collected in her brain and found them pinned to the armrests. Fighting down panic, afraid that something was terribly wrong now, she opened her eyes the barest fraction. The pain seeemed diminished now, and she could see to a small degree. Looking down, she realised her limbs were pinned to the chair by restraints, the metal slightly warm heated by her skin, held almost tightly enough to cut off the flow of blood to her hands, already slightly numb, their colour a slightly unhealthy shade of their normal light grey.  
  
She looked around, the shock of the once seemingly intense light now lessened to a dull ache in her eyeballs. She could only see a short distance, the pool of light around her seeming to be the only real illumination, lighting her chair and two pillars in front of her. Turning her head as much as she could, she saw two other pillars, her chair in the middle of them all. Looking slightly upwards, she noticed a lightly blinking light on one of the pillars. A camera, fixed to the dirty, rusted column of red metal a short distance up, focused on her. She felt another wave of panic hit her, intense, strong. She hadn't felt this way since...  
  
"NO!" she yelled, her voice coming back to her, echoing in the vast space. She struggled against her bonds, trying to pull them off, get her arms out, anything to get out of here, screaming at the top of her lungs for someone to let her out. After about quarter of an arn of this, she tired, wrists bloodied and torn from her thrashing against them. She slumped against the back of the chair, her head facing upwards as it lolled over the top of the headrest. A skylight. That's where the light was coming from. Red sky, that must mean she was still on the planet! She leaned her head forewards again and tried to conenctrate, tried to figure out what had happened to her...  
  
The last thing she remembered was leaving the bar to meet the others. Hearing someone behind her, she had turned... her memories became fuzzy. A hand, clamped over her mouth and nose, she had twisted in her attacker's grip, trying to get out of there. Opened her mouth to scream, to get help from the others. As she inhaled, the smell of a drug, burning through her nostrils and into her throat, losing control of her legs, her arms going limp, her brain fogging... looking up with blurry eyes to see a figure, kneeling over her, a Nebari, apparently in some kind of uniform... the nearby ground stained blue with blood... hers? She didn't think she was hurt but her body wasn't responding properly, she couldn't feel her limbs. She studied the blood as if from a great distance. It couldn't be hers! She wasn't meant to die like this, not now... Her vision tunnelled, as she rallied against the growing darkness. She wanted to scream, to punch, to do anything to let the universe she wasn't going to die like this, but her muscles wouldn't respond. She felt herself falling into the enveloping blackness. She must have been taken, kidnapped, into this place. Captured... by a Nebari?   
  
Footsteps, echoing in the vast, dark room behind her. Light, clicking heels against the stone floor, crunching on the sand that seemed ever-present on the planet Sikara, even inside. The footsteps stopped slightly behind her.  
  
"Ahh, my dear." A woman's voice, echoing heavily in the vast, empty space. She raised her head, tried to look around, but could see nothing. "You've awoken, I see." The head of her captor moved down beside her own, whispering in her ear. "You should have known that the Establishment would catch up with you sooner or later..." The voice chuckled and moved off once again.  
  
She let her head droop again. They'd found her. After the years of running, hiding, doing anything to get away from them, they'd finally found her on this backwater piece of dren planet! She laughed grimly. She would have been better off mugged, murdered, raped in an alley. Anything would have been better than going home...  
  
Her chuckles turned into sobs.  
  
They would take her back. Back to be a happy little servant for the "greater good". Back to have every trace of individuality erased... Back to be mind cleansed...  
  
----------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"My name is John Crichton, an astronaut.  
  
3 years ago, I got shot through a wormhole  
  
I'm in a distant part of the universe  
  
aboard this living ship of escaped prisoners...  
  
...my friends.  
  
I've made enemies...  
  
...powerful, dangerous...  
  
Now all I want is to find a way home  
  
to warn Earth  
  
Look upward and share the wonders I've seen..."  
  
Disclaimer: While this story is written by me, it is based in the Farscape universe. All characters and most of the words don't belong to me (although how I wish they did! ^_^ ), they belong to Henson, and the creators of the best frelling show in the universe, Farscape! :-D. It is also set some time before the final episode, in my own alternate version of the universe... I have plans for the crew of Moya... :-)  
  
Vision Unseen  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
By Frellnik, 1.4.2003  
  
D'Argo moved across the sandy ground near the transport pod, his expression shifting, from angrily concerned to just plain angry. "Pilot, have you heard anything yet?"  
  
"No, she's still not answering her Comms. However, there are many areas on this planet which Moya's sensors cannot penetrate. It may be that she is in one of these."  
  
Crichton moved up beside D'Argo, checking out the nearby town, made of low-built sand-coloured huts. "Hey, D. I wouldn't worry too much. Chi can take care of herself. She's probably just out making friends and influencing people, you know what she's like."  
  
He caught the Luxan's expression, and wisely decided to go talk to Rygel about those missing food cubes instead...  
  
She stayed limp against her bonds as the woman moved back towards the chair. How had they found her in Tormented Space? Let alone on this planet?  
  
"You're special to us, Ferra. You know that." The woman's voice held a mocking tone. "You should just..." A second set of footsteps, heavier than the woman's, then whispering, too low for her ears to catch.   
  
"What? Here? When?" More whispering. "I'm sorry, my dear. It seems I have to go now. I'll be back. Don't worry." She felt a hand stroke her hair slightly, the leather-encased fingers running through her pure-white strands. Then more footsteps, and the sound of a door swinging open, the hinges complaining, and closing again with a thud. The ker-klunk of a lock fixing into place followed a few microts later.  
  
Ferra, Nebari runaway, thief and rebel, was left alone with her fears.  
  
Chiana walked down the street. It'd been a while since she'd had a night like that since joining Moya. The others had a tendency to try to spoil her fun, ever since that "incident" on Romex IX. Had had she been supposed to know their taboos? It wasn't her fault they wanted to stone her to death for having a little fun...  
  
She heard something. Somone behind her, following her? She looked around, reaching for her pistol. She couldn't see anyone, but after so long on the run, she'd learned to trust her instincts. The gritty, narrow street seemed empty. Still, she had a feeling...  
  
"Chiana?" Her Comms burst to life, making her jump. "Can you hear me?" Pilot's voice came through the small badge.  
  
"Y...Yeah, Pilot. I'm here."  
  
"Chiana, the others are waiting for you at the transport pod. I suggest you get back there soon."  
  
"Sure Pilot." She moved down the street, with a brief look behind her again. She'd been so sure...  
  
Ferra awoke at the sound of the door opening again. She can't have been asleep for long, no more than an arn. She still felt woosy, but her head was much clearer now, her thoughts more ordered. More footsteps, along with something metal, rattling.  
  
"Ahh, my dear, I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting. We can continue with the process now."  
  
A figure stepped in front of her. A female Nebari, probably only about 10 cycles older than Ferra's own 23 cycles. She was holding something, some kind of needle. A large tray was rolled into her peripheral vision on the left hand side. Even though she couldn't see any of it's contents clearly, she was sure they wouldn't be particularly friendly-looking.  
  
Her captor was moving towards her right arm restraint, hand reaching towards the code-panel that would release it. If she concentrated...  
  
The world seemed to flash, and then Ferra saw the movements of the older woman with greater-than-usual clarity. Saw the code tapped out as the retraint snapped open, then blackness. She kept her sightless gaze downwards, trying to prevent her captor from seeing her eyes. She felt the needle pushing into her arm, something being pumped in. Within microts, she felt herself get drowsy, her mind fogging. As she felt herself falling again, she managed to get out one word.  
  
"Why?"  
  
There was a laugh, then words. Words which she couldn't quite make out. She was losing herself again. There was one thing she was thankful for. Her now milky-white eyes would be closed, hidden. She still had an advantage...   
  
She still had hope...  
  
"D'Argo, what is your problem!?! I said I was going out to have some fun!" Chiana stalked across the back of the Pod's cockpit, furious with their new captain for his anger. 'And lets face it,' she thought to herself, 'His jealousy.'  
  
"Chiana, we were waiting THREE ARNS for you! What did you think you were doing?" D'Argo was furious, although luckily not in a ripping off body-parts way. Mental Arts training had helped his hyper-rage, at least.  
  
"Hey, We're not together any more! You can't..." Chiana broke off as Crichton stepped between them. "Guys, chill! Pip, you weren't answering your Comms. We were worried!"  
  
"Well, you didn't need to. I can take care of myself." She looked slightly awkward. Maybe only someone who knew her well would be able to tell, but she was still uncomfortable with relying on other people, even accepting that others cared for her, even after all she had been through in the last 3 cycles.  
  
"We know that, but you know we still have Commandant Cleavage and Toto on one side, the Scarrans on the other, all after us at once. We can't take any chances. Even out here..."  
  
She looked at him, frustrated. With a huff, she turned and moved towards the back of the pod, and sat against the wall, arms on knees.  
  
The rest of the trip up to Moya was taken in silence, Aeryn moving the pod into a smooth docking that only someone who'd been flying all their life could achieve. As they stepped out, the clamshell in the mantainance bay buzzed into life. "Moya is reading a ship approching us. Small, two life forms aboard."  
  
"Can you show us, Pilot?" D'Argo asked, moving towards the clamshell, argument with Chiana momentarily forgotten. She took full advantage of the fact, and moved towards the door. The clamshell lit up with another image. A blue-ish ship, dominated by a spherical rear section. "It appears to be a Nebari vessel." Pilot said, a note of surprise in his voice.  
  
This stopped Chiana in her tracks. "What? Nebari? Here, in Tormented Space?" She moved towards the image. The ship was identical to the one that had bought her into this whirling, chaotic life aboard Moya. The image bought back flashes of her time there, with Salis and Durka, thinking she was only a matter of solar days from being mind-frelled. The collar, the constant punishments for not conforming, all the while with Salis' and Durka's blandly calm expressions looking at her, as if she was nothing...  
  
"They're asking to come aboard." Pilot said. "They say... they say they have a message... for Chiana."  
  
"No way!" She was backing away from the screen. "No frelling WAY are they taking me back! I won't let them! Do you hear me? I won't LET THEM!" She turned and started running for the door.  
  
"Chiana." A voice she seemed to only dimly remember, a voice she had though lost to her, that of the only person she had ever believed truely loved her, cared what happened to her. "Nerri..." she whispered, stopping dead in her tracks.  
  
"Chiana, I've sent this recording to be played by some of my agents. We need your help. Please, allow them aboard. You'll be doing the resistance... doing me... a huge favour..."  
  
The recording cut out. Chiana's voice came out in a dry whisper.   
  
"Let them in."  
  
She ran out of the maintenance bay before the others could see her tears.  
  
Ferra awoke with a start. Her body tingled, her eyes hurt, felt dry. Her throat was parched and she noticed more cuts on her arms from where the restraints cut into her, dried blood covering her wrists and the edge of the cuff, obscuring the shiny metal. She felt a hand pushing her hair away from her eyes, moving back, stroking it in almost a maternal way.  
  
"What do you want with me?" Ferra said, trying to look up, her head reeling more than when she'd first awoken.  
  
"It's simple, my dear. We simply want you to come home, to cure you of your illness." The stroking stopped, the hand moving down to her cheek as her captor moved around the front of the chair again.  
  
"My... my illness?"  
  
"Surely you know by now." The older woman smiled. "You've been hallucinating, haven't you? Thinking you see the future...?"  
  
Ferra tensed. She felt the last shreads of her hope drain from her. They knew. Knew about the visions...  
  
Her captor used a leather-clad hand to wipe away the tear that had spilled from her eyes.  
  
"Now don't worry, we just need to do some... tests." With that, she held up another syringe, this one full of a dark green liquid. As it was pushed into a vein and the liquid pumped into her, she felt it burn, moving around her body like a fire within her. She pulled at the restraints, struggled to escape the burning. Before long, her whole body was on fire. She was screaming now, her cries echoing around the room, coming back at her threefold, sounding as if they came from someone else. As she lost consiousness again, she thought she heard a chuckle from her captor, then blackness took her once again. 


	2. It should be easy

The woman looked at her captive. After two arns, she had let up on the... tests, her victim's brain, deprived of all sensory input barring pain, had shut down for a while. There really wasn't any more that needed to be learned about the anomaly anyway, not as long as it could be... repaired. No, No, she had to admit that she was rather enjoying teaching this ungrateful runaway just what happened when the generous guidance of their people was thrown back in their faces. She turned away, deciding to leave the girl to rest for a while She'd need her strength, after all.  
  
As she passed Ferra's slightly battered form, small dried rivulets of blueish blood trailing down her neck from where the Collar's needles punctured her skin, she let out a small laugh. Ferra's eyes flickered at the sound, her dreams once again filled with pain and blood, fear and agony. With one last look at her captive, Sial moved for the door. Yes, this one would be interesting to break, but the real prize was still outside of her grasp.  
  
"This has happened to other Nebari?" Chiana was pacing around the centre chamber, more restless than ever. Noranti was sat making a stew from some sort of vermin on the counter, the foul smell robbing Chiana of what little patience she normally would have had. The two new arrivals, Farris, a blocky male with a scar down his left cheek and Stalli, a female who seemed extremely quiet and intense, claimed to be from Nerri's cell of the resistance, here under his orders. She'd been trying to get information on his whereabouts, how he was, any news on him, desperate for anything that would reunite her with him, but they avoided the questions, deflecting them with ease. Instead, they told her what they knew about her visions.  
  
"Yes. One of our comrades started seeing flashes of the future about two cycles ago. At first, we thought she had been imagining it, but after a while, it became obvious that she really was seeing what was yet to be."  
  
"Well, how... what caused it?"  
  
"We don't know. We were passing through some sort of ion storm, she was struck by some kind of energy. We thought she was a gonner. But she just got up and carried on as normal. About a weeken later, she started... seeing things, hearing them, and then we realised that something must have happened to her, to cause her to see the future. It even saved our butts on a couple of occasions."  
  
"Where is she? Can I meet her?" Chiana moved around the counter, towards Farris. The two visitors looked at each other, then back at Chiana.  
  
"We don't know. Several of our cell were on the planet. Ferra..." He looked down, "We lost contact with her. Two solar days ago." He looked back at Chiana. "We think the Establishment got her. They've been pretty keen on capturing her. An agent on the inside told us... He said they know about her powers, that they've been looking for others with the same ability."  
  
"Woah, hold on a minute here." Crichton stood up from his seat near the wall, Winona still in his hand. "You're saying that the Establishment are huntin' down anyone with this ability?"  
  
Farris nodded.  
  
Chiana tensed visibly. "Do they... do they know about me?"   
  
"We think so. They seem to be following your movements closely."  
  
"Wait," Rygel said, floating on his Thronesled at table-height, his self-importance making him seem even higher. "What makes you think we're in any position to help you?"  
  
"Your exploits are becoming legendary. Your names are known throughout the uncharted territories. You took down a Shadow Depository and a full Command Carrier! There're only four of us here, including Ferra and our operative. Only two who can fight. We need firepower, and yours is among the best."  
  
"What's in it for... OW! What was that for you frelling tralk?" Rygel exclaimed. Chiana pulled her hand away from his ear.  
  
"We'll do it." She said.  
  
Crichton sighed and sat down. "And here we go again. Can we have just one week without a fight?"  
  
Half an arn later, Crichton moved towards Scorpius' quarters. Rounding the doorway, he paused, his first instinct, as ever on seeing the Scarren-Sebacean half-breed was to go for his gun. The object of his nightmares was sitting near a table, talking with Sikozu. Crichton stuck his head into the room, making his presence known..  
  
"Sputnik. You're needed in the transport hanger. Cap'n D'Argo's got a job for you on the planet." She got up, giving Scorpius one final look "Are you certain that the coolant rods are sufficient?"  
  
"Yes." Scorpius gave her a slight smile. "This new mixture seems to be more efficient. I will be fine."  
  
As Sikozu left the room, Crichton moved towards Scorpius, keeping the table between them.  
  
"Scorp, I'm gonna need you to stay up here while we do this."  
  
"But John. I'm here to safeguard you. If you're going..."  
  
"No. Stay. Here." Crichton went to leave the room, but turned around at the door. "And what did I tell you about calling me John?"  
  
"Chiana! You are not going and that's final!" D'Argo said "We can't risk them capturing you too!"  
  
"D'Argo, you can't stop me! I need to help!" She had a pleading look on her face, as she ran sideways, looking at D'Argo while still keeping up with him.   
  
"No!" They reached the mantainance bay.D'Argo moved towards his ship. Crichton, Aeryn and Sikozu were all inside already, waiting for him.  
  
"D'Argo...please!" The look on her face was enough to melt anyone's heart. Apart, it seemed, from that of one stubborn Luxan.  
  
"No! That's FINAL Chiana." He turned quickly, Qualtha Blade in hand, and stalked up the ramp into the ship. A few moments later, she heard the ship's powerplant whining as it warmed up.  
  
Chiana watched Lo'La depart, the slightly insectoid ship suddenly looking graceful as it's wings unfolded. Her anger rose in her chest, until she thought she'd burst from it. Frell him anyway! She could take care of herself. She had before.  
  
"Pilot," She said, "Get a transport pod ready. I'm going down there."  
  
"But Chiana," the voice from her Comms replied, "Ka D'Argo said..."  
  
"I don't care what he said, Pilot. Just do it!"  
  
"I can't! Not without his..."  
  
"Pilot," She said, in a low voice, "I don't know if you have mivonks or not, but if you don't get a transport ready and let me go, I'm going to make frelling sure you don't!"  
  
Pilot sighed. An angry, murderous Luxan, or an angry, viscious Nebari. Not much of a choice. He set the DRDs to working on a transport pod...  
  
Crichton rounded the corner. The low, sandy warehouse, about the size of a small apartment block, that the apparent "informant" had claimed Ferra was being held in lay in front of him. 3 Guards. No, 4, one patrolling the perimeter. No Nebari among them, though. Sighing, he started to turn around, reaching for his Comms to tell the others what his recon had revealed. He froze as he felt the cold metal of a gun at the base of his skull, his heart suddenly beating twice as fast.   
  
"Don't move." a voice said behind him, the menace not even an undertone.  
  
"Make that five..." Crichton said, under his breath. Why did he alway have to volunteer...?  
  
"They've got him! Sikozu called from her vantage point on a nearby rooftop, her uncanny abilty to shift her centre of gravity giving her a perch which anyone else would slip from in an instant.  
  
D'Argo let loose a Luxan curse. There went their element of surprise. "Sikozu, do you think you can get to that building unnoticed?"  
  
"Maybe. Crichton's capture seems to have distracted them. I think I could get to the roof. But we can't do anything. They're too heavily armed. If we try to attack, we'll be killed."  
  
"Do it. We're not leaving him."  
  
"But..."  
  
"Do it!"  
  
Sikozu sighed and moved off, towards the large, flat roof of the warehouse.  
  
Ferra awoke once again, her head, neck, back, arms and pretty much every other part of her body aching. She didn't remember much of what happened before she passed out, only blinding, sickening pain, pain travelling through her head, her eyes. Making it seem as if her brain was on fire. She would have told them anything, anything to get them to stop, to end the feeling that every cell in her body was being hammered with ice-cold picks, her heart being squeezed and her brain bubbling and boiling like a stew in a pot. She was afraid of what she might do, what she might say if it happened again. She was afraid of what she might have already done or said. The odd thing was... she didn't remember being asked any questions. Just the cruel, cold laughter of her captor. No, not cold. She seemed to have been enjoying it.  
  
Looking up, she saw the reason for her rude awakening. A sebacean male, tied against one of the four pillars, side towards her. He was yelling at the top of his voice, his words echoing in the huge space.  
  
"Hey! Hey! Guys? You know, this has all been a big misunderstanding! I was just looking for the bathroom and I got turned around! Hey!" He stopped, apparently to catch his breath, letting his head drop.  
  
"Wh...Who are you?" Ferra asked, timerously.   
  
"Hey, you're awake back there?" He looked up, turning his head around to try to see the source of the voice. "Thank god! My name's John Crichton, I'm here to rescue you." He looked at her awkwardly, his head turned as far to the left as it would go, a wry grin on his face. "Well, that was the plan, anyway. Don't worry, this happens a lot. My friends'll be here soon. Probably."  
  
Ferra, for some reason, didn't find this comforting at all. She leaned her head back against the headrest, trying to think of anything besides the pain.  
  
Sikozu moved over the rooftop of the warehouse where Crichton had been taken prisoner. She wasn't sure how she'd let those crazy fools talk her into scouting the building out, but it seemed she was stuck. As always the sensible course of action, to accept the casualties and retreat, was ignored. She shook her head. They were all crazy. How they'd evaded the Peacekeepers for three cycles was beyond her. Well, she was stuck, until she found a better prospect anyway.   
  
Looking around, she saw a skylight. Moving towards it she looked down into the dark space below. A chair was directly beneath her, in the middle of the pool of light provided by the skylight. A white-haired figure, the Nebari girl, was sitting in it. She couldn't see Crichton in her small field of view, but Ferra seemed to be looking at something, talking excitedly to someone in the deep shadows off to the sides. It didn't look like an interrogation. Realising that she wouldn't learn any more here, she moved to the edge of the roof, examining the guards, studying their movements. As she moved across, she failed to see the streak of a transport pod coming in to land... 


	3. Diversons

"FRELL!" D'Argo said, kicking a nearby airvent. "Pilot, why didn't you stop her?"  
  
"She was quite... insistant. I'm afraid I didn't have much choice."  
  
D'Argo growled. This whole Captain gig just wasn't quite what he'd hoped for.  
  
Chiana opened the transport pod hatch, the dusty air of the planet immediately drying her eyes. Checking her pulse pistol, she stepped out, boots crunching slightly on the gritty sand. "OK," She whispered, "For Nerri."  
  
Sikozu opened up the dusty, grimy skylight, finally having caught a glimpse of the human. "Crichton!" She half called, half whispered through the opening. He looked up, squinting at the bright light in the dim room, startled. "Sputnik!" He turned his head to the grey figure on the chair nearby, who was looking up, her eyes wide and her mouth in an "O" of surprise. "See, I told ya my friends would be along." He looked back up to Sikozu. "Hey, can ya get down here and untie me?"  
  
Before Sikozu could answer, the loud clank of the door lock echoed through the warehouse. She pulled her head back quickly, reaching for her Comms.  
  
"D'Argo, I found him."  
  
"So, you must be the famous John Crichton. It's a pleasure to meet you." His captor circled the pillar he was strapped to, looking at him closely. Before he could respond, she continued, her boots crunching on the gritty floor as she moved. "You know, you're turning into quite the legend in the Uncharted Territories. Destroying a Shadow Depository, a Gammak Base, and even a full Command Carrier." She paused in her circuit of the pillar, standing directly in front of him, looking him in the eyes, with a tilt to the head that made him think instantly of Chiana. "Funny, I never thought you'd be caught this easily."  
  
He looked at her. "Listen, sweetheart, I've had bigger, grosser and more bad-ass nasties pick my brain, so let's just cut to the chase. What do you want from me?"  
  
"My dear Crichton," she said, running a finger through his hair and chuckling. "Who said I wanted you?" She turned on her heal and walked away, the crunch-crunch of her boots marking her movements, even after she left Crichton's view. He heard Ferra struggle, gasp and call out in anger as the woman passed her, which was suddenly silenced by a ringing slap. Then the door clanked as it opened and closed again. Crichton let his head droop. Not he just had to hope Sikozu would be back.  
  
Aeryn and D'Argo moved up the thin, dark alley, towards the rear entrance to the warehouse, weapons primed and ready. Peering around the corner, Aeryn counted three guards, two Sebaceans and a Luxan, all apparently mercenaries. She turned to D'Argo and nodded. They burst around the corner, weapons up. The guards saw them immediately, firing as soon as they rounded the corner. None of them saw the red-clad figure half-way up the wall. Within seconds, all three guards lay immobile on the dusty mini-dunes covering the floor in these little-used backstreets.  
  
Crichton heard the door burst inwards, for a moment thinking that their captor had come back, then he realised that the sound was that of the door lock being ripped off it's mountings, the door itself banging against the wall. He couldn't see where the sounds was coming from, but he caught sight of Ferra's face, surprise written across her features. The young Nebari's mouth was open, her eyes wide. He tensed, waiting for the blow, the sting, whatever it was that would be coming. Instead, he heard a sharp clang, metal against concrete, and the tension binding his hands to the pillar was gone.  
  
"Crichton, are you alright?"   
  
"Aeryn? Yeah, I'm fine." He rubbed his wrists. The plastic-like bindings had caused deep red welts to come up where they had bitten into the flesh. "Listen, the guards hightailed it outta here not long ago. I think it would be a good idea not to be here when they get back."  
  
D'Argo steeped from behind Crichton's pillar, re-sheathing his Qualta Blade "Agreed." He rumbled, kneeling to untie Ferra. Aeryn tossed Crichton a Pulse Pistol. He looked at it for a moment, a pensive look on his face.  
  
"This doesn't feel right... Where's Winona?" He moved behind one of the other pillars covering the door, Aeryn shrugged, taking up the opposite position. As D'Argo got Ferra free, Crichton couldn't help but think "This is too easy..." He looked at Aeryn.   
  
Her expression confirmed it... this WAS too easy.  
  
"Pilot, any news from Chiana yet?" D'Argo's voice betrayed the concern he still felt for the young thief, as he guided Lo'La into the docking bay.  
  
"No, Ka D'Argo, not yet." The slightly harassed tones of the ship's Pilot filtered through Lo'La's speakers. "Nothing since she took the Transport Pod down approximately three arns ago."  
  
"Have you tried to contact her?" He knew that he must have done. The crew themselves had several times already, with no luck.  
  
"Of course! However, I cannot pick up a signal from her comms, which means it's either deactivated or..." Pilot trailed off, knowing what he was implying. Besides Aeryn, Chiana was his closest friend on the crew.  
  
"Keep trying, Pilot." Lo'La came in to a graceful landing in her customary place in the bay.  
  
She awoke in a chair, dizzy. The world seemed to spin wildly around her. The mearest movement caused a bright bloom of pain in her head. Opening her eyes was almost unthinkable. Trying to raise her hands to her temples, to try to relieve some of the pain, and realised she couldn't, that cold, hard metal was pinning her arms down, to what felt like armrests on whatever chair she was sitting on. She tried cracking open her eyes again. The pain was less. She looked at her hands, tried to see what was pinning them down. Some sort of manicles held her, almost cutting off the flow of blood to her hands, the grey flesh turning slightly more pale, the fingers tingling, almost useless for her normal skills to be effective. Looking around, she saw that it was a bare metal room, only about twice her height in each direction. She was no door, but she could only see three walls, all bare, grey and shiny, no patterning. She only knew of one race that would design something so utterly boring...   
  
Suddenly, there was a hissing sound behind her, a door opening. Footsteps clanked on the floor, slow and even, the practiced walk of a torturer, aiming to un-nerve even the coolest of captives.   
  
"Well, my dear, I'm so glad to have you here." The voice was female, soft and seductive, seemeing to promise in it's every inflection that, provided it's instructions were met, then there would be no need for unpleasantness.  
  
"You put up quite a fight, you know. Killed several of my guards." The footsteps continued around the chair, until a face came into view. Chiana knew it instantly.  
  
"What the frell?" she exclaimed, eyes widened, mouth hung open in shock. It couldn't be!  
  
She felt a pinprick, then blackness overtook her. The last thing she thought was "It can't be... it can't be!"  
  
Half an arn later, D'Argo was waiting in the Command, sat looking pointlessly at the readouts on the panels, hoping for word about Chiana, when Pilot's crustacean-like face appeared in the Clamshell.  
  
"D'Argo." He started, quickly. "Moya just sensed a ship leaving the planet. It's Nebari in design. We picked up a transmission."  
  
"What did it say?"  
  
"As far as we can tell, 'Target aquired'"  
  
"Pilot, follow that ship. Now!" His jaw locked with determination. He would not let this happen. 


End file.
